Christopher Lowell's If You Can Dream It, You Can Do It Dream Decor on a Budget

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The Creativity Chip What convinces us that we're not creative beings and that we lack imagination? Is it ego, the yearning to be praised, and the judgment of others? After all, we're told not to even try unless we are so obviously good at something that we'll be instantly rich and famous. "Get a real job" is the common refrain. At least that's the message we get from other people and from that two-headed dragon, the media. Now, let's be clear. The world that the media continually shoves in our faces is real. But it's lopsided. If we see only one aspect of our world, we 're bound to be influenced by that point of view. And what we decide to believe becomes our reality. In fact, any time thousands of people buy into a belief, a new reality is created. The more people who share it, the more powerful and sustaining that reality becomes. Conflict occurs when people cannot agree on the rules. That's simple enough, right? Two of my heroes, Will and Ariel Durant, devoted their lives to proving this very point. In more than a hundred published works they examined the sweep of world history and the cycles we continue to repeat. Then they took everything they had learned and distilled it down to one small book, The Lessons of History. One of these lessons is that mass beliefs can build empires in one century, then destroy those empires in the next. So if we agree that the mass belief system creates a reality, then doesn't it stand to reason that by changing the belief system, we change the reality? The answer is yes. So what does this have to do with creativity? You Are Creative, Too I've said it before and I'll say it again. We are all creative. It's innate, like breathing. The body doesn't get its inspection sticker without it. There is actually a creative mechanism literally built into our brains. Like a microchip. Honest to God! So where is this creative chip? Well, it doesn't blink in your navel, it doesn't beep going through customs, and you won't find that it came loose and got sucked up in the vacuum. But it's there, crushed flat as a pancake maybe, and stone cold, but it's ready to be rescued. Our poor creativity! We pile upon it the burdens of the world, as well as our self-judgments and those of others. I believe creativity was bestowed on us as an antidote to stress. But our fear of being creative blocks it. So ironically, the very thing built in to reduce stress is actually stressing us all out. "So, if that's true, who got mine?" you might ask. "Somewhere in Silicon Valley there's a talent chip with my name on it," you jest? Wait a minute, talent is a different thing. Talent is what you earn after being creative over and over again. It's a question of practice making perfect. But even that doesn't guarantee you'll accomplish anything. Let me give you an example. One summer, a friend invited me to stay in his wonderful house. It was stocked with artist's supplies, a fabulous studio, a potter's kiln, and a grand piano. I was in heaven-at least for the first week. I'd sit at the piano to compose, only to realize that the vision running through my head wasn't music, it was a painting. Off to the studio I went. Halfway through a painting, I realized that the form on the canvas was better realized in three dimensions. Out came the clay. Now the music came to my mind, and I found my way back to the piano. The summer was winding down and so was I, after amassing two dozen half-finished projects. When the homeowner returned, I opened the door completely frazzled. With a knowing smile, he said, "Had enough?" He then taught me something that I have never forgotten. He said, "Having talent is one thing, but without a clear dream it is completely useless. And, nothing is sadder then creativity without focus." I had been completely self-indulgent and, although I had released a ton of creativity, I never gave it a pl